Dealing with workplace deviance

WORKPLACE deviance refers to deliberate malicious attempts to sabotage an organisation by causing problems.

It is voluntary behaviour that violates institutional norms which threatens the well-being of the organisation. Workplace deviance can be divided into interpersonal and organisational deviance.

It puts emphasis on attitudes and motivation of the individual employees. Positive workplace deviance It includes a personal sense of well-being and the advancement of organisational norms. Individuals intentionally depart from the norms of the organisation in an honourable way. Positive workplace deviance is classified as pro-social behaviours and it includes the following behaviours:

◆ Organisational citizenship behaviour

◆ Whistle blowing

◆ Co-operate social responsibility

◆ Creativity and innovation

◆ Non-compliancy with dysfunctional directives ◆ Criticising incompetent supervisors

Causes of workplace deviance

1. Perception of a breach of the psychological contract by the employer. When an employee is hired in a company, they enter into a psychological contract. They thus have certain expectations of the employer. If these expectations are not met, work place deviance can occur.

2. Abusive supervision. If subordinates perceive their supervisor as hostile, they may opt to be deviant. Supervisor behaviour like giving subordinates silent treatment, reminding them of past failures, failure to give proper credit and wrongfully assigning blame or blow trigger workplace deviance.

3. Organisational injustice such as failure to involve employees in decision making or treat employees fairly as well as continued threats lead to frustration and ultimately deviance.

4. Workplace dissatisfaction. Once workers are dissatisfied with the conditions of their work environment or tasks within their jobs, they may become less productive.

5. Poor interpersonal relations once employees feel disrespected by their peers, supervisors and employers.

6. Employees with aggressive personalities perceive more injustices and engage in more deviant behaviour at work than non-aggressive workers. 7. The more positively viewed the organisational climate, the less incidents of misbehaviour. The more rules and laws implemented in the organisation the more incidences of misbehaviour. An autocratic organisation impacts on deviance. The more bureaucratic the organisation the likely that workplace deviance will occur.

A leader’s value has an impact on workplace deviance. If a leader manifests deviant behaviour, it is most likely to be picked up by subordinates.

Personality factors include personality characteristics, an individual’s value orientation, personality flows or mental disorders and the love for money

Demographic factors include gender. Males engage in more aggressive behaviour than females. Also employees with less tenure are more likely to commit property deviance. When it comes to age, the older employee is likely to be more honest than a younger employee. On the other hand the more educated the employee, the less likely they will be involved in unethical behaviour.

On status, employees with a high status are more likely to receive support from engaging in positive deviant behaviour than those with low status. Further, employees who possess numerous reference groups are more likely to engage in positive deviant behaviour.

Social and interpersonal factors include:

1. Influence of work groups: A multitude of ethnic differences between workers in an organisation shows a likelihood of deviance.

2. Opportunities: Personal involvement in corporate tasks diminishes the possibility of destructive behaviour.

3. Loyal and passionate employees are less likely to be deviant.

4. Wrongful treatment can contribute to workplace deviance.

5. Keeping employees busy with the tasks they will have to take responsibility for lowers employee deviance.

6. Employees who report high levels of job and organisational satisfaction report low levels of the likely hood of ethical rule breaking within the organisation.

7. Production deviance and property deviance is more likely to occur when a company has good resources to detect thefts and abuse of company property.

8. There is need for psychological empowerment of employees in the working environment. An empowered mindset enables employees to participate in decision making. Employees need to be helped to breakout of stagnant mindsets and take a risk to try something new.

Role of HR department in dealing with workplace deviance

1. Adapt to a specific organisational culture, one that is centred on extremely important ethical values.

2. Conducting frequent individual background checks when hiring.

3. Group together all the generally accepted values and norms within the workforce.

4. Having an understanding of the different values held by different subcultures within the company.

5. Empowering employees on pro-social behaviour such as innovation which is likely to maintain a competitive edge for the company.

Preventing deviant behaviour

1. Employees should know what is expected of their behaviour, thus a clear philosophy must be formulated and the actions of management must reflect the moral climate that is desired.

2. Executives need to concentrate the attention of organisation ethics and values in order to provide principles guiding the behaviour of employees.

3. Installation of watchdogs for the organisation who will filter directives from toxic bosses, listen to staff member’s frustrations and anger. This will help to prevent pain and hold the confidence of others in the workplace.

4. Provision of training programmes aimed at improving the employee’s personal ethical framework.

5. Controlling deviance by use of surveillance techniques, keeping records of deviance acts and doing inspection.

6. Promoting pro-social behaviour like corporate social responsibility and organisational citizenship.

Possible solutions to workplace deviance

1. Effective communication by leaders to their subordinates to build strong relationships. This boosts self-worth and self-esteem. Upward communication is encouraged.

2. Leaders should practice empathy when dealing with their subordinates. The more contentious an individual is, the less likely they will engage in deviant acts.

3. Psychometric testing can be done by a psychologist during selection. Selecting employees on the basics of personality factors like conscientiousness, emotional stability and agreeableness is likely to reduce the occurrence of workplace deviance.

4. Instituting training programmes that convey to managers the pervasiveness and expense of deviance workplace behaviour. The nature of such behaviour should also be explained.

5. Ensuring that staff receive feedback on counter-productive behaviour by including them in rating scale for performance approval.

◆ Sifikile Songo is a psychologist and a lecturer at the Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences. She writes in her personal capacity